Crazy Rich Asians director wrote Coldplay an emotional letter asking to use 'Yellow' in the film

The final scenes of Crazy Rich Asians would have been very different if the director, Jon M. Chu hadn't sent an emotional letter to Coldplay. He wanted to use their single 'Yellow' but Warner Bros. was concerned about the title of the song. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the word has been used as an ethnic slur against Asians in the past but that's why Chu wanted to own that term — “If we’re going to be called yellow, we’re going to make it beautiful.”

At first, Coldplay decided to turn down the request. Jeff Yang, from Quartzy, said it could possibly be because of the criticism the band received due to their cultural appropriation of Asians in 'Princess of China' and 'Hymn for the Weekend.'

As per HuffPost, Rihanna’s 'Stay' and Sia's tracks were considered as 'Yellow's' replacement. However, Chu wasn't satisfied with the result they as couldn't accommodate the bigger picture of what the characters were about.

The cast and crew of Crazy Rich Asians. AP

In order to convince Coldplay, Chu decided to write them a letter stating his affair with the colour yellow, its meaning and reasons why it should be a part of Crazy Rich Asians. Within 24 hours the band got back to him with a positive response and licensed their track to him. The team commissioned Katherine Ho, a USC freshman who appeared on the US version of The Voice to do a Mandarin cover of Yellow.